Revanth: BRS handed over Dharani and sensitive land data to criminal elements

Hyderabad: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy accused the BRS government of handing over sensitive land records and personal data of landowners and farmers to foreign companies and those involved in criminal activities and financial frauds.

He slammed former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and former IT minister K.T. Rama Rao for entrusting the Dharani portal to companies based in tax havens like the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands.

Reddy said that the Dharani portal, which took off in 2020, was not innovative as was being claimed by his predecessor but a replica of Odisha government's e-Dharani portal, launched in 2010 and managed by IL&FS.

Despite the CAG highlighting significant lapses in Odisha’s e-Dharani system, Chandrashekar Rao had handed over the management of Dharani to the IL&FS, he said.

Speaking during the debate on The Telangana Record of Rights in Land (Amendment) Bill 2024, in the Assembly on Friday, Revanth Reddy accused top BRS leaders of compromising the state's land records and personal data, alleging that information of 1.52 crore acre of land was handed over to companies involved in financial scandals and operating out of tax havens.

Reddy criticised the BRS for attempting to derail the discussion in the House and charged that they were trying to prevent the Congress government from rectifying the ‘flawed’ Dharani portal system. He alleged that the portal was a front to benefit fraudulent companies linked to major scams, including those of Satyam Computers and Maytas. He specifically named close associates of Rama Rao —Gade Sridhar Raju, Rahul Goswami and Anand Kumar — as key beneficiaries of the portal’s operations.

The CM revealed that TerraCIS Technologies, the agency managing Dharani, was under investigation of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for breaching contractual terms. According to Reddy, the firm had violated stipulations such as operating from government offices and ensuring transparency in transactions. Instead, the company conducted operations from offices in Vijayawada, Bengaluru, and even foreign tax havens, raising suspicions about clandestine transactions.

Tracing the ownership trail, he stated that TerraCIS, initially linked to IL&FS, underwent multiple ownership changes. By 2021, a Philippine-based firm, Falcon SG, acquired 99 per cent of TerraCIS shares, with the remaining one per cent purchased by Gade Sridhar Raju, who eventually became its CEO.

Falcon SG was later acquired by Singapore-based Falcon Investments, whose shares were split among five firms rooted in the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands.

“Sensitive land data of Telangana farmers has been placed in the hands of foreign entities with questionable credentials. This is a grave breach of public trust and national security,” the Chief Minister asserted.

He criticised the BRS government for ignoring tender policies prohibiting companies with criminal backgrounds. He pointed out that reputed government institutions like National Informatics Centre (NIC) and Centre for Good Governance (CGG) were bypassed in favour of foreign firms with a history of financial irregularities.

He also accused the previous government of flouting the ‘Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023’ by handing over private data to foreign firms without the consent of citizens.

“Even Union minister G. Kishan Reddy’s complaints about illegal Bhoodan land transfers to private persons in his native village Thimmapur were ignored by the BRS government,” Reddy said.

Revanth added that the Congress government has since initiated action to reverse these transactions. He wondered why Chandrashekar Rao, who had hailed Dharani as a revolutionary system, did not attend the Assembly session to defend the portal.

The Chief Minister stressed the importance of bringing transparency to Telangana’s land administration, stating that the Congress government’s ‘Bhu Bharati Act’ aimed to restore confidence among citizens.